The Interesting Reign of Pagers

There is no doubt that pagers dominated mobile healthcare communications for decades. In fact, they were pretty much the only option for people who needed to receive important alerts away from a landline phone.

But how much has this dominance changed? Some people stated that smartphones were going to quickly become the new standard. But now a fuller picture is emerging, one in which pagers still play an important role alongside many other devices, including but not limited to smartphones.

In the survey we conducted of 300+ healthcare organizations (mentioned in previous blogs), we found that paging has actually declined very little. When asked “Compared to three years ago, how has the number of pagers within your hospital changed?”, 26.6% of respondents said they had increased pager use, while 34% had stayed constant or seen a small decline. (Access survey results here.)

To explain this, we should look at the reasons pagers have been around as long as they have.

Survivability: Even in disaster situations over the past decade, such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the Minneapolis bridge collapse, pagers performed their duties even when cellular coverage failed. This is an important consideration for life and death cases in hospitals.

Low cost: There are several factors to consider when comparing pagers with smartphones. First, there’s the device itself. Pagers can often be free for a facility with a paging system compared to a few hundred for each smartphone. Second, the monthly costs for service are significantly higher for cellular devices as well. Third, there’s a repair or replacement cost to think of. Again, next to nothing for a pager, but not so for the alternative. Given these costs, hospitals aren’t going to give or support smartphones for every single mobile staff member. Caregivers and administrators will likely need these devices, but not housekeeping or meal services staff, for example. Pagers are a more cost-effective choice for these roles.

Easy to use: Pagers are pretty streamlined and easy for IT or communications teams to support. There’s a single use for pagers versus the wide arena of capabilities inherent with a smartphone. Little training is required for someone who’s been handed a pager. The options for response are easy to understand and straightforward.

So at the end of the day pagers are going to be around for a long time—just like so many other mobile communications devices. Hospitals just need to be able to keep messages flowing whether recipients receive them on a pager, smartphone, Wi-Fi phone, voice communications badge, or whatever else they prefer. Right message, person, time, device.

What have you seen at your hospital as far as pager use?